for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
JPL
This is from twitter
A National Park Service volunteer just told me that the tanks & military equipment are all in the closed off perimeter for the president’s VIPs and that the general public on the Mall will not be able to see them.
SiubhanDuinne
Every section of the Declaration feels more immediate and personal than it has ever done in my nearly 77 years.
Adam, thank you so much for doing this. It’s a wonderful tradition — please plan on posting it each year.
Martin
@JPL: Photos seem to confirm that. Lots of fences including one through the reflecting pool by the Lincoln Memorial. Trump and the GOP just annexed part of the National Mall and are now showing off their private military.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Doesn’t that kind of defeat his entire rationale for hauling the tanks out in the first place?
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: Wasn’t his rational, me me me me
Major Major Major Major
Thanks for posting these, Adam. I remember being gobsmacked during the W. years when I first noticed how relevant Republicans can make the Declaration sound. Much worse now, of course…
@JPL: weird.
Tenar Arha
Anyone post this video clip yet? Within the past 1/2 hour on the mall
chris
Keep dancing everyone!
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: Yep.
This is as far as the general public without VIP tickets can go:
The media pen is within the security perimeter though. And I’m sure, as is the case at every of the President’s events, they’ll not be permitted to focus the video cameras on anything but what is in front of them. So when they broadcast no one will see that everyone who isn’t a VIP with a ticket is halfway down the mall on the other side of a fence.
chris
@Tenar Arha: Yup.
Adam L Silverman
@Martin: He’s going to hold the Lincoln Memorial hostage until he gets his citizenship question on the census. And a hot apple pie from McDonalds!
SiubhanDuinne
@Tenar Arha:
@chris:
Aww. The poor tanks will rust.
debbie
@JPL:
Typical. Wish I could link to a photo that popped up on my FB feed. It’s that picture of Trump pretending to drive that semi Photoshopped so it’s like he’s piloting a child-sized tank.
B.B.A.
Samuel Johnson’s tweet-length prebuttal of the Declaration:
trollhattan
Chainlink in the Reflecting Pool. This is a fucking abomination. How about Trump go and open a bar in Mecca as an encore?
Adam L Silverman
@Tenar Arha: Here you go:
The Blue Angels are scrubbed. They have an absolute hard deck at 1,000 feet with 3 miles visibility to do their most limited show, which is basically just a flyover. They’re grounded now. I’m pretty sure they’ll ground the F22s and F35s, especially the latter because they’re still trying to asphyxiate their pilots and that’s in good conditions. Marine 1 and its task force will also be grounded in this weather. That leaves the B2s and AF1, which can fly above the weather, but no one will see them. So we’ve spent at least a billion dollars on this and none of it, other than a pair of tanks and a pair of bradleys getting wet, is actually going to happen.
Martin
@Adam L Silverman: At this point I’ll be happy that we don’t wake up tomorrow with Lincoln’s head chopped off and Trumps put in its place.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Tump at last has his (chain link) wall!
Martin
@Adam L Silverman: Beginning to wonder if the networks shouldn’t broadcast this after all…
NotMax
12 score and 3 years ago….
Sad to contemplate how many people today would respond to the Declaration with “tl;dr.”
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: Seeing that cheesy chainlink fence across the pond is infuriating. That’s the American people’s property. He has hijacked our country. I want it back.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: Look, when you you piss off the rain gods (Wikipedia has a handy list because of course it does), there’s not much that can be done except to buy stock in umbrella makers.
Steeplejack
@JPL:
The VIP area is huge! (Photo at tweet).
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: They did that to prevent a repeat of what happened when Nixon tried this. I’m sure it became part of the Secret Service protocols.
Adam L Silverman
@Steeplejack: Or in comment #9 for those who would just like to scroll up.
dmsilev
@Martin: National Weather Service has a flash-flood warning for the area in effect through 8 PM…
JR
@Adam L Silverman: Did not realize that you were also a Mike Duncan fan. Revolutions is the best podcast going.
FlipYrWhig
I remarked earlier that in light of recent events it’s pretty amazing to see among the list of proofs of George III’s tyranny “refusing to pass others [i.e., other laws] to encourage their [foreigners’] migrations hither.”
Martin
Apparently the QAnon idiots believe that JFK Jr will rise from the grave today. How come these jackholes never get interviewed in the tales from forgotten rural america series?
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: Our tax dollars at work.
Ryan
Looks like Cole’s rain dances have worked. Wall to wall coverage of the earthquake in California on MSNBC.
HeleninEire
OMG guys. Just read the last thread. FREAKED ME OUT until I figured out what was going on. I was, um, quite chatty last year!!!
mrmoshpotato
@dmsilev:
But that could turn the White House into a swamp!
Ryan
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.”
In fairness, he has done neither of these. He’s left offices unfilled and he’s made the military subservient to the Trump campaign.
dmsilev
@Martin:
I’m not impressed by this absurdist reboot of V for Vendetta.
Baud
@HeleninEire:
Haha. We were hoping you’d see it.
Martin
@Adam L Silverman: I love the constant return to the theme ‘Hey, Nixon did something, let’s try that!’ with apparently no awareness of either the process or the outcome.
NotMax
Burning question is what’s in the swag bags for the ‘VIPs?’
Martin
@HeleninEire: Well, free whiskey tends to do that…
Another Scott
Thunderstorm just ending here in NoVA, but the weather radar is very colorful and active.
I think people would be nuts to be out in the open in weather like this, and there are few areas more open in the area than the National Mall…
[eta: Here comes the rain again, … ]
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@HeleninEire: All that free booze you got for having a US passport.
mad citizen
This is all just too delicious. I learned about Nixon’s Honor America 1970 gambit today, but am also recalling his late night surprise visit there. I guess for Trump maybe some version of that will come.
Adam L Silverman
@Martin: Especially now that Roger Ailes is dead. Though, perhaps, it shows he spends a lot of time on the phone with Roger Stone.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: Well only the VIP’s can see the wet tanks anyway.
JPL
@HeleninEire: So have you been in a bar drinking whiskey and rye this year?
MagdaInBlack
@Adam L Silverman:
There’s just something about Independence Day and chain link fence that that brings on another wave of heartsick disgust.
This whole slow rolling debacle has me feeling much the way one feels caring for a dying loved one. I know that sounds a bit extreme, and I’m not one given to extremes, but that sad sense of inevitability is similar, for both this country and this planet.
This too shall pass, of course, but looking at that fencing….wow.
Martin
@Adam L Silverman: Well, Trump was what, 22 when Nixon was elected? Pretty impressionable years.
HeleninEire
@Martin: @Adam L Silverman: Yup. Too bad I’m paying for it this year. :)
Still chatty, though.
debbie
@Martin:
I heard JFK Jr. interviewed a bunch of times. He’d never be a Trump supporter. Period. These clowns are clearly smoking the wrong kind of dope.
Adam L Silverman
@MagdaInBlack: The cruelty may be the point, but exhaustion is the purpose. Pace yourself. Self care. Turn off a bit. If you’re worn out you can’t put up a fight.
David Evans
Obviously Obama’s Deep State is using HAARP to control the rain.
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: One of my nightmare scenarios is that he insists the Blue Angels fly on the deck anyway and one crashes.
Coming back to Santa Fe on Monday was through a mixture of clouds and thunderstorms. The American Airlines jet flew far enough below the clouds not to get knocked around, which seemed kind of weird for a while. I’ve flown into Los Alamos in a smaller plane in similar conditions. Not recommended for aerobatics.
The Dangerman
@Adam L Silverman:
I got money he’d trade the census question for a bucket of wings and some Pringles.
ETA: And not that low fat Pringles crap; that gives you the uncontrollables and the last thing we need is the President covering up the sharts
NotMax
@MagdainBlack
It’s not a fence, it’s a Freedom Rail. //
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: No USAF officer or NCO is going to risk their careers over that. Remember, we have a zero defect military. It won’t matter if the President orders it, if anything happens to one of those planes in today’s flyover, someone’s career is over.
Adam L Silverman
@The Dangerman: Two quarter pounders with cheese, a filet o fish, a supersized fries, two hot apple pies, and a supersized vanilla shake.
HeleninEire
@JPL: Dude it was your comment “Somehow I missed that you went back to Dublin” that clued me in that it wasn’t just me losing my mind.
And to answer your question. No. Just wine this year. I only drink whiskey when it’s free.
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: I agree, but he’s gotten far too much by stamping his little foot.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
“Sorry, sir. I seem to have left the keys to the jet in my other pants.”
Cheryl Rofer
Steeplejack (phone)
@Adam L Silverman:
My apologies! I didn’t realize we were under “first pictures only” rules. Neither of which shows the much ballyhooed tanks, which #23 does.
Baud
@Cheryl Rofer:
Trump makes God cry.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Marian Anderson and MLK Jr. up there somewhere, pushing the clouds in.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax:
Is it not just the classic trashy tacky revolting thing you’d expect from this bunch?
Ive moved on to ironic laughter and head shaking.
They never cease to amaze me.
MagdaInBlack
@Adam L Silverman:
Thank you, Adam. Usually i compartmentalize this pretty well, but……wow at that g-d fencing ?
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: The military leadership has gone about as close to the edge of open insubordination as they can. They’ve subtweeted and subcommented him. They’ve dragged their feet. They’ve gone full on general officer/flag officer passive aggressive. Nothing we ever taught these men and women about CIV-MIL relations in and for the US envisioned this president. Maybe we were naive and shortsighted, but that’s the reality. They also don’t have, except for the Secretary of the Navy, actual Senate confirmed secretaries for Defense, the Army, or the Air Force. They’re all acting, so the Service Chiefs and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs only have limited civilian top cover. But you’ll notice there doesn’t appear to be a rain/foul weather plan. If the DOD was serious about pulling this off and not passively aggressively dragging their feet, they’d have a foul weather contingency plan in place. Interior won’t because the guy running Interior is a lobbyist, but the Service Chiefs all no how to do it and why it is important. And, you notice, they didn’t.
Mary G
They’ve called a delay now, asking all 108 people sitting in pouring rain to please stand by.
Citizen Alan
@David Evans:
You laugh, but I saw an insane old biddy talking about harpp on Facebook this morning
Adam L Silverman
@Steeplejack (phone): The video in the third tweet shows the Bradleys. Learn your Armor branch terminology.
https://www.benning.army.mil/armor/content/PDF/2017-2018%20Armor%20Training%20and%20Leader%20Development%20Strategy.pdf?29MAR2017
mrmoshpotato
@Cheryl Rofer: Bwhahahhahaha that is a SOAKING! Patrick Stewart wouldn’t want to get his head wet in that.
grandpa john
@MagdaInBlack: ++- Makes you wonder if any of the yahoos involved in planning this fiasco even bothered to check the weather forcast for the time period of this event
MagdaInBlack
@grandpa john:
Perhaps they did and deemed it fake news?
Seems about right ☺
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
You have to hand it to the reality TV star, he really knows how to put on a show.